High school basketball all-star weekend is upon us. Here’s my package to prep you for the big games. First a feature on Immacualta’s go-to-guy Alex Hart, who made his NCAA Div. 1 choice. Also, there’s a story on Immaculata’s twin championship night, as well as full rosters for the Sunday’s game. If you can’t make it out, I will be broadcasting both games (2 p.m. girls, 4 p.m. boys) from the Langley Events Centre. –Howard Tsumura

LEADING FROM THE HART
In his heart of hearts, Alex Hart always knew he could get to where he wanted to go by staying put and just working hard.
And so it has come to pass that the big man from Kelowna’s tiny Immaculata Regional High School has registered a string of slam-dunk successes that have lifted him to the front of the pack among B.C. high school basketball’s graduating Class of 2013.
Of course, it’s only an overnight success story if you disregard all of those endless hours in the gym. But over the past few weeks, the 6-foot-11, 210-pound Hart accomplished the following:
*Earned tournament MVP honours in leading Immaculata’s Mustangs to the school’s first-ever provincial Single A basketball title.
*Piqued interest from 15 NCAA Div. 1 men’s basketball programs before finally, this past Sunday, electing to continue his collegiate hoops career next season in the Big West Conference with the Cal State-Santa Barbara Gauchos, where he envisions playing the small forward position.
*Earned the chance to cap off his prep career on Sunday when he plays in the 2013 B.C. high school all-star game at the Langley Events Centre. The girls all-star game tips off at 2 p.m., followed by the boys at 4 p.m.
“I have always been happy at Immaculata even though a lot of people would tell me to transfer to a bigger school,” the provincial team standout admits. “I have always just felt that if you have good coaching, you can take your game to the next level. (Immaculata head coach) Dino Gini has taken me there.”
Add Gini: “People think that if you play at a Single-A school, you won’t get any looks, but if you’re good enough, then you will.”
Over the stretch drive of his senior season, NCAA and CIS schools lined up to express their fondness for Hart’s game, which has some similarities to that of Gonzaga superstar Kelly Olynyk’s in that it is centred around being a big man with perimetre skills who is also able to play tough, extended minutes in the paint.
“At the provincials, he had to play big for us to win,” Gini stressed of how much he needed Hart to leave his perimetre-based comfort zone to battle under the basket. “For us to get our first blue banner (B.C. title), he had to compete in the paint and he did that. But he can slide out there at the three (small forward) and hit the three. And with his size, no one can guard him out there.”
Yet while Olynyk had to battle the adversity of a shoulder injury that wiped out his Grade 11 high school season at South Kamloops, Hart has been able to avoid serious injury throughout a high school career in which he very steadily added inch after inch to his frame.
“But really, my only big growth year was in Grade 8,” admits Hart, who sprouted some five inches, from 6-foot to 6-foot-5 over his first year of high school. “It was just pretty steady ever since. I am pretty sure I have stopped growing, but some people tell me that I still am.”
Yet the projections being made with Hart these days don’t focus so much on how tall he may become, but rather how much more muscle mass he can carry.
“I think with another 40 pounds, you could be talking about him playing at the next level,” Gini says, suggesting that if Hart gains the necessary strength and continues to develop over his career at UCSB that any level of the professional game won’t be out of reach.
Of course Hart’s collegiate career is now first and foremost in his mind.
“The most important thing I needed to see was that the team was like a family,” Hart says of the Gauchos. “You’re going to be spending so much time with guys on the team. But also, some coaches have their own system. At (UCSB) they seem to play off everyone’s strengths and off of one another.”
There’s that, but he also sees a lot of Kelowna in his new home.
“Here, everyone loves spending time at the lake,” Hart explains. “There, it’s so close to the ocean. They both have the same small, downtown feel. To me, it all feels inter-connected. In a lot of ways, to me, it feels like Kelowna.”
So as one chapter ends, another begins, and Hart is no doubt ready to start setting new goals from a new home.IMMACULATA’S MAGIC NIGHT
When the 2012-13 high school basketball season opened in late November, Dino Gini just had a feeling that March 9 could be the biggest day in the history of Kelowna’s Immaculata Regional High School.
“It ended up being pretty neat story,” the 55-year-old Gini admitted.
On that day, Immaculata won, within the space of about an hour, both the B.C. Single A senior varsity girls and boys basketball championships, and Gini was the head coach of both teams.
Of course he wasn’t able to be in two places at the same time, so while he physically coached the boys teams — which included his son Michael — to the provincial title in Abbotsford, he kept in close touch with the girls team, which won its title in Prince George.
“I was there with them at halftime (of the championship game),” laughed Gini, who via Skype was able to address his girls just before tip-off of the boys title tilt. “I was there in front of them, sitting in a chair. I addressed each player. The girls were asking me questions. I felt like I was there. It was really cool.”
At some point in the second half of the boys championship game, a 67-51 win over St. Patrick’s of Vancouver, someone tapped Gini on the shoulder and told him the girls had won it all.
“It felt great, but I am an intense guy and we were in a real tight game,” he said of the boys championship final. “We had a plan. If the boys had lost one of the games (leading up to the final), I had a plane ticket and I would have been off to Prince George.”
As it was, assistant coaches Leah Kouwenhoven and Brian Grant did a superb job with the girls in a 58-54 win over hometown Cedars Christian as the Mustangs’ Olivia Johnson was named tournament MVP.
“We had to have back-to-back practices,” Gini said of the plans in place this season to coach both teams, “and sometime we shared the gym. You had to be so prepared all year, and it was a lot of hard work. With two quality groups like that, I have to say it was the most satisfying season of my coaching career.”SUNDAY’S ROSTER BOYS TEAM GEORGE BERGEN (dark)
6. JJ Pankratz (6-5 g, 170, Yale)
3. Montell Lindgren (6-1 g, 170, Duchess Park)
32. Josh Mayorga (6-4 g, 215, Walnut Grove)
21. Chase Ruttenberg (6-4 g, 175, Sentinel)
10. Deklan Chung (6-1 g, 165, St. George’s)
32. Jesse Mushiana (6-9 f, 230, Sir Winston Churchill)
10. Elijah Hillis-Gold (5-11 g, 170, South Kamloops)
16. Erik Spaven (6-5 f, 180, Belmont)
10. Ryan Lintell (6-4 f, 175, Kelowna Christian)
7. Drew Schultz (6-1 g, 160, Kelowna Christian)
12. Alex Hart (6-11 c, 210, Immaculata)

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Head of the Class 2014

Recognizing courage and commitment in high school sports. For details click here.